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there is a second level to this--apart from the civil rights violation matter that has occupied folk so far:
i think it is instructive to consider for a while the difference between political events that is not going to be televised--which can accomidate dissent and often does--and which retain something of the idea of politics as public debate, and thereby something of the messiness of democracy (well, american pseudo-democracy)----as over against one that is designed to be televised.
maybe use this situation--which demonstrates the right's affection for generating an illusion of unanimous support---as an example. think about the function of the police action--to work as janitors for the sanitized tv image, to help organize it--maybe this will start people thinking (if they do not already) about the problematic nature of film/video/tv images as sources of anything like reflection of the world----this problem goes well beyond the faux news matter, the obvious right biais of the talking heads that verbally frame image sequences fro example---and to the medium itself.
what makes people imagine that footage has in itself a documentary value? that there are not always problems of framing (what is included, what excluded), of editing....why are people still fooled by the apparent referential nature of a video or digital image into thinking that the image itself can be understood as somehow "truth"?
this illusion seems fundamental to the current system of population management.
this despite the fact that for years there have been filmmakers whose work has tried to undermine this faith and explore other ways of thinking about what film is/does/can do--i was reading stan brakhage writings last night, so he is the example that floats to mind.
it is good to see some of this stuff--it is kind of lilke trying to watch a slasher film after you see "henry portrait of a serial killer" which exposes all the conventions of the form by simply not using them....
any thoughts on this?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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